This is a great year for Benicio Del Toro. The actor seems poised to earn an Oscar nomination for his intense performance in Sicario, and to sweeten the pot, he recently signed up for a major role in Star Wars: Episode VIII. Last year we saw the actor in James Gunn‘s The Guardians of the Galaxy, in a fun bit part as the Collector, and it’s just been confirmed Del Toro will return for the sequel. Read more after the jump.

In both the Thor: The Dark World post-credits sequence and in Guardians of the Galaxy, we got the impression the Collector would play a pivotal role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Actress Zoe Saldana shared on Facebook that we will indeed see the mysterious character in the sequel. The size of his role is unknown. If it’s more substantial than what we saw in the first movie, that’s a good thing.

The Collector was something of an expository device in Guardians of the Galaxy, but Del Toro breathed real life into the character. His attention-grabbing costume and hairdo aside, the actor brought an irresistible charm to the galactic salesman. In fact, I wouldn’t mind seeing a film set entirely in the Collector’s shop. Marvel hasn’t made a one-shot film in a while, but if they do, why not give us a glimpse into the day of the life of the Collector?

Writer-director James Gunn hasn’t revealed too much about the sequel, but he also hasn’t been tightlipped. Guardians of the Galaxy left the door open to introduce Peter Quill’s (Chris Pratt) father, and the plan is to walk through that door with the sequel. Gunn intends on making another film about family with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.

At its heart, Guardians is a story about families, and if the first film was about him and his mother, this is a story about fathers. So it’s exciting to go there. I think it’s about getting to know the characters a little bit more. You know, in the first one, we kind of had one hand tied behind our backs because we had to introduce all those characters in one movie. And in this one we really get to play and have a good time and have fun. And then also get a little bit more — I don’t want to say serious, but go a little bit deeper with who the characters are… I think the characters of Gamora and Nebula and Yondu, those are some characters we get to know a little bit more, in a way we got to know some of the other characters more in the first movie.